Geopolitics

Why organisations work with Michelle Bachelet Has personally led major institutional reform inside a G20 economy, including pension overhaul, tax reform, and the creation of Chile’s Ministry of Women and Gender Equality. Held the UN’s senior human rights office at the moment human rights frameworks became binding inputs into corporate due diligence and sanctions risk. Built UN Women from the founding stage as its first Executive Director, which gives her a credible voice on gender equality as an institutional discipline. Brings personal moral authority to questions of democratic resilience: imprisoned and tortured under the Pinochet dictatorship, she returned from exile to become the first woman elected President of the country that had jailed her. Currently nominated as a candidate for the next UN Secretary-General, which keeps her active at the centre of debates on multilateralism and global governance. Biography highlights Twice elected President of Chile (2006-2010 and 2014-2018), the country’s first and only woman in the role. Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2018 to 2022. First Executive Director of UN Women, established 2010. First woman Defense Minister of Chile and of Latin America. Previously Chile’s Minister of Health. Recipient of the 2024 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development. Distinguished Fellow at Columbia University’s Institute of Global Politics. Biography Human rights frameworks have moved from political commentary into the substance of investor due diligence and regulatory scrutiny. Bachelet has been at the centre of that shift. She served two terms as President of Chile, then four years as the seventh United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her two presidencies delivered structural reform of a kind few G20 leaders attempt. Pension overhaul, tax reform, equal pay legislation, and Chile’s Civil Union Act for same-sex couples were each politically expensive inside a centre-right legislative environment. Her administrations also established the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, the National Institute for Human Rights, and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. Between her presidential terms she served as the first Executive Director of UN Women, building the agency’s mandate from the founding stage. She returned to the United Nations in 2018 as High Commissioner for Human Rights under António Guterres, leading global human rights monitoring across country situations from Myanmar to Venezuela. Earlier in her career she had been the first woman to serve as Defense Minister of Chile and of Latin America, and Minister of Health before that. In 2018 she founded Horizonte Ciudadano, a civic foundation working on territorial democracy and climate adaptation in Chile. She is a Distinguished Fellow at Columbia University’s Institute of Global Politics and the recipient of the 2024 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development. In February 2026 she was nominated by Brazil and Mexico as a candidate to succeed António Guterres as Secretary-General of the United Nations. Key speaking topics Geopolitics and political risk Democratic governance and institutional resilience Global human rights frameworks in business and policy Multilateralism and the future of the United Nations Gender equality and women’s leadership Social protection and public-sector reform Civil-military relations Ideal for Boards and CEOs facing political risk and democratic instability in their operating markets CHROs and ESG leaders integrating human rights and gender frameworks into corporate practice Governments, multilateral institutions, and development finance leaders working on social policy reform Sovereign and institutional investors with long-dated political and governance exposure Audience outcomes A first-hand reading of how political risk plays out inside a country’s executive The mechanics of how human rights frameworks now shape corporate due diligence and sanctions exposure A frank assessment of where multilateral institutions are working and where they are failing A perspective on gender equality as institutional discipline, drawn from building UN Women from the founding stage The case for democratic resilience, made by someone who returned from exile to be elected president of the country that had imprisoned her

Why organisations work with Sarah Hewson Two decades at Sky News presenting Breakfast, News At Ten and her own weekly programme, which means she handles live, unscripted rooms the way most events directors only hope for. Has interviewed the last five UK prime ministers and six senior members of the royal family, so she chairs ministers, executives and chairs without deference or theatre. Anchored Sky’s coverage of two royal weddings, the Diamond Jubilee and the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral, which is the highest pressure live broadcast work in British television. Reports across CNN, BBC, The Washington Post, Times Radio, ITV’s Lorraine, Sky News Australia and Nine’s Today Show, giving her a register that travels across international audiences in the same room. Active Royal Editor at TalkTV, so her booking weight, name recognition and currency on the news cycle are still in service, not retired into the speaking circuit. Biography highlights Royal Editor, TalkTV. Hosts The Royal Tea and the Friday Breakfast Show. Twenty plus years at Sky News, including Royal Correspondent and presenter of Sky News with Sarah Hewson. Anchored Sky’s coverage of two royal weddings, royal births, the Diamond Jubilee and the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral. Interviewed the last five UK prime ministers and six senior royal family members. Regular contributor to The Washington Post, Times Radio, CNN, BBC, ITV’s Lorraine, Sky News Australia and Nine’s Today Show. Patron of OSCAR’s Paediatric Brain Tumour charity. Biography Live television is unforgiving in a way that conference stages rarely are. The presenter has to listen, edit, redirect and close, in front of millions of viewers, on a clock measured in seconds. Sarah Hewson spent two decades doing exactly that at Sky News, presenting every programme from Breakfast through to News At Ten, and hosting her own weekly show. As Sky’s Royal Correspondent she anchored two royal weddings, royal births, the Diamond Jubilee and the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh. Hard-news assignments ran in parallel: the 7/7 bombings, the London Bridge terror attack, the death of Osama Bin Laden, Brexit negotiations and the coronavirus pandemic. She has interviewed the last five UK prime ministers and six senior members of the royal family, plus senior figures from business, sport and entertainment. She is now Royal Editor at TalkTV, hosting The Royal Tea and the Friday Breakfast Show, and reporting across The Washington Post, Times Radio, CNN, BBC, ITV’s Lorraine, Sky News Australia and Nine’s Today Show. The mix of UK political reporting and international royal coverage gives her unusual range when a room contains both domestic policy and global media interest. That is the toolkit she brings to corporate events. She chairs panels of ministers, regulators and chief executives the way she conducts a live broadcast: timed, awake to the news cycle, and quick to push back when an answer dodges the question. Key speaking topics Conference and summit hosting Panel moderation Awards ceremonies and gala dinners Fireside interviews with senior leaders Royal affairs and the British monarchy UK politics and Westminster reporting Media, broadcasting and the modern news cycle Ideal for Corporate annual conferences, leadership offsites and customer summits requiring an experienced broadcast host. Awards ceremonies, gala dinners and high-profile evening events seeking a recognisable national television presenter. Public affairs and policy events where panels include ministers, regulators or senior civil servants. Industry events commissioning a royal commentator for cultural moments tied to the monarchy. Audience outcomes Panels stay on schedule, on the brief and on the record, with senior speakers held to substantive answers. Q and A sessions land with clean, well-framed questions instead of long-form audience commentary. Programmes feel produced and paced at television standard, with clear transitions between sessions and speakers. Corporate messages reach the room without dominating it, with the host carrying the editorial line.

Why organisations work with Juliet Mann Two decades anchoring live business news on CNN, CNBC, Sky News, Reuters, TRT World and CGTN Europe, which means she can chair a senior panel without rehearsal scaffolding and recover any conversation that starts to slide. A working interviewer’s instinct built on direct exchanges with EU policymakers, with CEOs at Nestle, L’Oreal, Geox and Lafarge, and with figures including Sir James Dyson and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Comfortable across the editorial range a serious corporate programme actually demands: macroeconomics, geopolitics, sustainability, digital and entrepreneurship, rather than a single specialism that limits the brief. Current host of CGTN Europe’s The Agenda, a weekly current affairs talk show, which keeps her in daily practice with the format most conferences are trying to emulate on stage. Bilingual in English and French, which matters for pan-European audiences, multinational client events and continental press engagements. Biography highlights Host of The Agenda, CGTN Europe’s weekly current affairs talk show. Former anchor and correspondent for CNN’s Marketplace Europe, the network’s weekly European business programme. Newsroom postings with CNBC, Sky News, TRT World and Reuters in London, Paris, New York and Frankfurt. Interview credits include Sir James Dyson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu (for the BBC), David Beckham (during London’s successful 2012 Olympic bid), and CEOs of Nestle, L’Oreal, Geox and Lafarge. Corporate broadcast credits with EY TV and HSBC TV; podcast A Week in my Flexible Working Life; freelance features for The Daily Telegraph and Economia. Politics degree, University of Bristol; works in English and French. Biography Live business television is the most exposed form of moderation there is. The anchor has to read an executive in real time, hold a line through interruptions, and translate a balance sheet, a geopolitical risk and a customer story into one coherent conversation, on air, with no edit. That is the practice Juliet Mann has been in for more than two decades. She has anchored from the London, Paris, New York and Frankfurt newsrooms of CNBC, CNN, Sky News, TRT World and Reuters. At CNN’s Marketplace Europe she sat opposite EU policymakers and the chief executives of Nestle, L’Oreal, Geox and Lafarge. At Sky News she interviewed David Beckham the morning London won the 2012 Olympics and rode the last transatlantic Concorde. For the BBC she interviewed Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Today she hosts The Agenda, CGTN Europe’s weekly current affairs programme, where the brief is to take a single international story, build a panel around it and keep the conversation tight enough to publish. That is the working repertoire she brings to the corporate stage: chairing a CEO interview, moderating a board-level panel on growth or sustainability, anchoring an awards ceremony, hosting a Brussels policy roundtable. She works in English and French. She prepares like a journalist, not like a host-for-hire, which is the difference clients notice in the room. Key speaking topics Conference hosting and moderation Executive interviews and on-stage CEO conversations Awards ceremonies and corporate compering Panel moderation on business, sustainability and entrepreneurship European policy and EU-facing discussion forums Bilingual English and French event hosting Ideal for Corporate conferences, AGMs and customer summits that need an experienced live business anchor in the chair. Awards ceremonies and gala dinners where presence and pace decide the evening. Board-level panels and CEO fireside formats on sustainability, growth, geopolitics or digital. Pan-European events and Brussels policy forums requiring bilingual English and French hosting. Audience outcomes A programme that runs to time and lands its key messages. Executive interviews that produce substantive, quotable answers rather than rehearsed lines. Panels that stay on the topic the audience came to hear, with each contributor properly drawn in. A professional broadcast register on stage, suitable for filmed content and post-event clips.

Why organisations work with Clare McDonnell She is the voice that announces the news to the UK on BBC Radio 5 Live Drive each evening, and she brings that same authority and composure to a corporate stage. She presents Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4 and anchored Newsday on the BBC World Service, which means she can interview a chief executive, a campaigner, and a minister inside the same hour without losing the audience. She has covered live, unscripted moments of national consequence including the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the resignations of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, which is the kind of pressure that makes a conference room feel manageable. She moves from a five-thousand-seat venue at ExCeL London to a small charity dinner without changing register, which is what awards hosts and panel chairs are actually paid for. She is a working journalist, not a former one, which means panellists are interviewed by someone who is still asking questions of national figures every weekday. Biography highlights Daily presenter, BBC Radio 5 Live Drive. Regular presenter, BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour. Original launch presenter, BBC 6 Music, March 2002 to March 2010. Anchor, Newsday, BBC World Service; presenter on the Global News podcast. Reporter, BBC One’s The One Show; former reporter on BBC Three’s Liquid News. Sports presenting credits include the Wimbledon Championships and the UEFA Women’s European Football Championships. Biography The presenter of BBC Radio 5 Live Drive is, for several million UK listeners each weekday evening, the voice that explains the news as it happens. Clare McDonnell has held that chair through Westminster confidence votes, two Conservative leadership exits, and the moment she announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II live on national radio. She is also a regular presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, anchored Newsday on the BBC World Service, and presents on the Global News podcast, the BBC’s most-downloaded news podcast. She was one of the original launch presenters of BBC 6 Music in 2002 and reported on BBC Three’s Liquid News before moving into mainstream news and sports anchoring, including the Wimbledon Championships and the UEFA Women’s European Football Championships. For organisations, the relevant point is the craft. Hosting a conference is not the same job as presenting a radio show, but it draws on the same muscles: keeping a panel honest, hearing what was actually said, moving an audience through a long programme without losing them, and asking the question the room is thinking but cannot phrase. McDonnell does that work daily on live national radio. She has covered enough unpredictable moments to be unbothered by the small ones that derail a conference: a missing panellist, a slide deck that fails, a CEO who answers a different question. The pressure of a corporate stage is, for her, the easier version of a Tuesday at five. She is represented by Knight Ayton Management and chairs panels, hosts awards, and moderates audience Q and As from the ExCeL Arena in London to small charity events. Key speaking topics Awards hosting Panel moderation Live event hosting Audience Q and A chairing Conference and gala hosting UK and global news interviews Ideal for Awards ceremonies looking for a host with national broadcast presence. Leadership conferences needing a panel chair who can interview chief executives and policy figures. Corporate galas and customer events where the host carries the evening across multiple segments. Charity dinners and advocacy events that need a host with newsroom credibility. Audience outcomes A programme that runs to time without feeling rushed. Panels that stay on the question the audience cares about, not the answer the speaker prepared. Senior figures interviewed in a way that gets a real answer, not a press line. An audience that feels addressed by someone they recognise from national radio. A host who absorbs the unexpected without the audience noticing.

Why organisations work with Lucrezia Millarini Fifteen years of live anchoring at ITV News, including the ITV News at Ten and the network’s breaking news announcement of the Duke of Edinburgh’s death, translates directly into composure on stage when a session goes off script. Background in law before journalism: a Bristol law degree and barrister training, useful when chairing panels on regulation, policy, or geopolitics, where the questioning needs to land precisely. Genuine breadth across hard news and softer territory. She has reported from the Grenfell inquiry coverage and co-hosted ITV’s Mental Health Special with Martin Lewis, so audiences trust her to handle difficult subject matter without slipping into either solemnity or gloss. Recognisable network face for UK audiences. Booking her signals to delegates that the event is serious enough to warrant a household-name anchor at the lectern. Biography highlights Anchor, ITV News: ITV Lunchtime News, ITV Evening News and ITV News at Ten. Presenter, ITV London evening bulletin; regular reporter for ITV’s documentary series On Assignment. Reported on the RTS award-winning ITV coverage of the Grenfell Tower Fire. Co-host, The Martin Lewis Money Show: Live Mental Health Special and Mortgage Crisis Special. Law graduate, Bristol University; barrister training; postgraduate diploma in Broadcast Journalism, City University, London. Patron, Dogs on the Street and Support Dogs; supporter of Alzheimer’s Society campaigns. Biography Live news anchoring is the closest analogue in television to chairing a senior conference. The host has a fixed window, a moving brief, contributors who may go long or off-piste, and an audience that expects clarity without theatrics. Lucrezia Millarini has done that work on ITV News for more than fifteen years, across the Lunchtime News, the Evening News and the News at Ten. Her route in matters. She read law at Bristol and trained as a barrister before moving to journalism via a postgraduate diploma at City University. That legal grounding shows up in how she questions panellists on regulation, policy and geopolitics, where loose framing produces loose answers. The range of stories she has handled on air is proof of the point for sensitive corporate sessions. She fronted ITV’s RTS award-winning coverage of the Grenfell Tower Fire, broke the news of the death of the Duke of Edinburgh in a special announcement in April 2021, and was part of ITV’s team at the Windsor wedding of Harry and Meghan. She has co-hosted ITV’s Mental Health Special with Martin Lewis, and reports for the network’s foreign affairs documentary strand, On Assignment. Corporate clients book her for conference chairing, panel moderation and award hosting. The recurring feedback is composure on stage, warmth with contributors, and a refusal to let a panel meander. For organisations putting a flagship event in front of customers, regulators or the board, those are the variables that actually decide whether the day lands. Key speaking topics Conference chairing and panel moderation Award ceremony and gala hosting Geopolitics and current affairs Mental health and wellbeing in the workplace Media, journalism and the modern newsroom Women in leadership and career conversations Ideal for Boards and CEOs commissioning a flagship customer, investor or industry conference where the chair has to hold the room. CHROs and internal communications leads running town halls or all-hands sessions on sensitive topics, including mental health and restructuring. Awards organisers and gala hosts want a recognisable UK broadcast face at the lectern. Audience outcomes A conference agenda that lands as a coherent argument rather than a sequence of unrelated talks. Panels in which the senior contributors are pushed on the points that matter without the session losing pace. Sessions on sensitive subjects, mental health, restructuring, and geopolitical risk, are handled with the steadiness audiences associate with live news. A day that delegates remember for the substance of the conversation, not for the moments that went wrong.

Why organisations work with Ida Kymmer Brings a working knowledge of how the same technologies are deployed in commercial, defence, and peacebuilding contexts, so leaders see the full surface area of a decision rather than one face of it. Founder of House of PeaceTech, the ecosystem platform connecting investors, startups, governments, and NGOs working on conflict prevention and recovery technology, which gives clients access to a network most strategy advisors cannot reach. Has shaped immersive technology programmes for BMW, H&M, Clinique, and Shiseido during her tenure at Journee, so the perspective is built on real brand deployment, not theory. Active across MENA, Korea, and the Nordics through Infinite Reality, Hub71, and Vinnova, giving organisations a read on emerging technology adoption beyond the usual US and Western European frame. Publishes Tech for War and Peace weekly, so the analysis a client receives is built from continuous primary research, not refreshed every booking cycle. Biography highlights Director of Business, MENA at Infinite Reality Founder of House of PeaceTech, the ecosystem platform for technology in conflict prevention and recovery Former Director of Global Affairs at Journee, working with BMW, H&M, Clinique, and Shiseido Author of Tech for War and Peace, a weekly newsletter on defence, conflict, and peacebuilding technology Master of Arts in Peace and Conflict Studies Startup judge for Vinnova (Sweden) and Hub71 (Abu Dhabi); speaking record at World Economic Forum, SXSW, Gitex, TechBBQ, and Deloitte Innovation Day Biography Emerging technology rarely arrives with a clean use case. The same systems that power immersive retail can be repurposed for surveillance, defence, or disinformation. Most advisors look at one face of that surface. Few look at all of them. Ida Kymmer’s work sits across the commercial, defence, and peacebuilding applications of the same technologies. She holds a Master of Arts in Peace and Conflict Studies and founded House of PeaceTech, an ecosystem platform connecting investors, startups, governments, and NGOs working on conflict prevention and recovery. Her weekly newsletter, Tech for War and Peace, tracks how defence-adjacent technologies move between sectors. Her commercial credibility is built on deployment, not theory. As Director of Global Affairs at Journee from 2021 to 2023, she shaped immersive technology programmes for BMW, H&M, Clinique, and Shiseido. She now serves as Director of Business, MENA at Infinite Reality, and judges startups for Sweden’s Vinnova and Abu Dhabi’s Hub71. The geographic and linguistic range matters here. She has lived in nine countries, speaks five languages, and reads emerging technology adoption from Seoul, the Gulf, and the Nordics as fluently as from Silicon Valley. Boards in any of those markets get a perspective that the usual American or Western European advisory pool does not provide. Key speaking topics Emerging technology and innovation strategy Defence and peace technology Immersive technology and commerce Disinformation and information integrity Sustainability and the green transition Korean innovation systems and soft power MENA technology ecosystems Ideal for Boards and executive teams making frontier technology investment or deployment decisions Chief innovation, strategy, and digital officers in consumer brands, automotive, and luxury Government, defence, and policy audiences engaging with dual-use technology Sustainability and ESG leads scrutinising green-transition supply chains Audience outcomes A clearer map of how a single technology operates across commercial, defence, and humanitarian use cases Specific examples of immersive technology deployment from named global brands A working view of innovation ecosystems in Korea, MENA, and the Nordics Sharper questions to put to internal teams on dual-use exposure, supply chain ethics, and emerging technology partnerships

Why organisations work with Nicholas Hopton A serving British Ambassador to four of the region’s most sensitive postings inside a decade: Yemen, Qatar, Iran and Libya. That working contact list is not replicable from outside government. Reopened the British Embassy in Tehran as the first UK Ambassador to Iran since 2011, giving a first-hand reading of how Iranian decision-making actually functions under sanctions and confrontation. Runs Belmont Advisory, a private geopolitical consultancy, alongside the Middle East Association: advice is shaped by what clients have actually done with it, not by think-tank distance from the deal. Current platforms at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative and as a RUSI Distinguished Fellow keep the analysis tested against serious peer scrutiny. Comfortable with senior business audiences and broadcast media in equal measure, including Bloomberg, the New Statesman and The Spectator, which means a board briefing lands without needing translation from policy register. Biography highlights British Ambassador to Libya, 2019 to 2021; Iran, 2015 to 2018; Qatar, 2013 to 2015; Yemen, 2012 to 2013. First British Ambassador to Iran after the embassy’s reopening, following the 2011 closure. Director General of the Middle East Association. Founder and Managing Director of Belmont Advisory, a geopolitical consultancy. Nonresident Senior Fellow, Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, Atlantic Council; Distinguished Fellow, Royal United Services Institute. Led the drafting team for the UK’s first National Security Strategy in 2008; Private Secretary to four UK Ministers for Europe, 1998 to 2000. Biography The reopening of the British Embassy in Tehran in 2015 closed a four-year diplomatic break with Iran. Nicholas Hopton was the ambassador who walked back in. Running a mission in a country that had just expelled the previous one is a particular kind of education in how power, sanctions and personal access actually interact. That posting sits inside a 35-year career in the British Diplomatic Service that ran from junior roles in Paris, Rome, Morocco and Mauritania to four ambassadorships in under a decade. Yemen during the early collapse, Qatar at the moment Gulf finance reshaped global asset flows, Iran through the nuclear deal years, then Libya. Each post was the kind of brief in which the embassy is the analytical asset, not a passive observer. In Whitehall he led the team that drafted the UK’s first National Security Strategy in 2008 and served as senior UK official at the 2011 Perth Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. He spent 1998 to 2000 as Private Secretary to four successive Ministers for Europe. The London grounding matters for clients: he understands how the British system actually decides, not just how it appears to. He now runs the Middle East Association as Director General, founded the geopolitical consultancy Belmont Advisory, and holds research positions at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative and at RUSI. The combination gives boards something most political-risk providers cannot: a practitioner who can still place the phone calls, and whose interpretation has been tested in real negotiating rooms. Key speaking topics Iran: politics, sanctions and the post-Khamenei trajectory The Gulf states and the geopolitics of capital Libya, North Africa and Mediterranean security UK and European policy towards the Middle East Political risk and market access in conflict-adjacent economies The mechanics of British and European decision-making on foreign policy Ideal for Board and executive committee briefings on Middle East exposure Chief risk officers and heads of government relations in firms with regional operations Investor and family-office audiences weighing Gulf capital allocation Foreign-policy and defence audiences in think tanks, universities and policy fora Audience outcomes A working map of where power actually sits in Tehran, Doha, Riyadh and Tripoli, separated from media shorthand A clearer view of how sanctions regimes affect commercial decision-making in practice An informed read on the UK and European policy posture toward the region, and where it is likely to move Direct answers to the questions a senior team would otherwise be unable to ask in the open

Why organisations work with Lewis Dartnell Translates planetary-scale science into commercial foresight that leadership teams can actually use in strategy work. Author of The Knowledge, a Sunday Times bestseller built around a question every operator should be able to answer: which technologies in your value chain are foundational, and which are replaceable. Connects geology, biology and climate to the present-day shape of supply chains, geopolitics and consumer behaviour, drawing on the Origins thesis translated into thirty languages. Brings broadcast-grade communication craft from BBC Horizon, Stargazing Live and a main-stage TED talk, calibrated for board and executive audiences, not lecture rooms. One of a small number of working research scientists who can hold a 45-minute keynote at the level required by a CEO offsite without losing scientific rigour. Biography highlights Professor of Science Communication, University of Westminster. PhD in Astrobiology, University College London. Former UK Space Agency Research Fellow at the University of Leicester. Author of The Knowledge, Origins, and Being Human, plus Life in the Universe and a guide to the solar system; Sunday Times bestsellers translated into more than thirty languages. Main-stage TED speaker (TED2015) and regular BBC presenter across Horizon, The Sky at Night and Stargazing Live. Bylines and contributions in The Guardian, The Times, New Scientist and The Daily Telegraph. Scientific consultant on HBO Max’s Station Eleven and on Brian Cox documentaries. Biography Modern organisations sit on top of scientific systems that almost no one in the room can explain. Energy, materials, communication networks, food chains, the climate envelope they operate within. When those systems shift, the strategic consequences arrive quickly, and the executive team often lacks the language to see them coming. Lewis Dartnell’s work attacks that gap directly. The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch, a Sunday Times bestseller, asks which technologies a civilisation would have to recover first, and why. It is a thought experiment with a hard commercial edge. Strip away the assumptions, and what is actually foundational? A copy sits on the surface of the moon. The book has been adopted as a thinking tool in industries that depend on long-horizon decisions. Origins extended the argument to geology, plate tectonics and climate as drivers of human history, and has been translated into thirty languages. Being Human, his most recent book, examines how human biology and psychology continue to shape political, economic and consumer behaviour. The through-line is consistent: deep scientific structure explaining surface-level outcomes that boards spend their time arguing about. He holds a chair in science communication at the University of Westminster after research roles at University College London and the UK Space Agency programme at Leicester. His broadcast work for the BBC, his TED talk and his scientific consultancy on shows such as Station Eleven mean he speaks at a register designed for general audiences without losing the underlying rigour. For a senior leadership team trying to think clearly about technology, resources and the next twenty years, he is one of a small number of speakers who can hold both ends at once. Key speaking topics Strategic foresight and first-principles thinking Resilience and civilisational technology Long-range science and the future of business Geopolitics, resources and climate Space exploration and the commercial space economy Astrobiology and the search for life Human biology and behaviour as commercial forces Science communication and clear thinking Ideal for Board offsites and CEO leadership summits requiring scientific perspective on long-range risk CSOs, heads of strategy and corporate development teams running scenario work Innovation, R&D and technology leadership groups CHRO and leadership development audiences building first-principles thinking capability Audience outcomes A sharper view of which technologies and resources are foundational to the business, and which are substitutable A grounded understanding of the planetary and biological forces shaping geopolitics, supply chains and consumer behaviour A working vocabulary for long-range scientific risk that senior teams can use in their own strategy conversations A more disciplined first-principles approach to questioning assumptions inside the organisation Genuine intellectual engagement from senior audiences who normally tune out of “future trends” content

Why organisations work with Yuval Noah Harari The NEXUS framework – which distinguishes self-correcting from self-reinforcing information networks – gives boards and governance teams a precise conceptual tool for evaluating AI strategy and regulatory exposure, grounded in historical evidence rather than prediction. Sapiens introduced the argument that large-scale human cooperation is built on shared fictions. For leadership teams, this reframes how institutions, legal systems, and monetary frameworks actually hold power – and what causes them to fail. Direct conversations with heads of state including Macron, Merkel, and Rutte put his arguments at the level of active geopolitical decision-making, not commentary. Audiences engage with someone whose thinking is tested at the highest levels of governance. His Distinguished Research Fellowship at Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk anchors his arguments on AI in active institutional research on civilisational-scale risk – not opinion or futurism. The 100,000-year historical lens is genuinely rare in this space. It gives senior audiences a method for distinguishing structurally permanent change from cyclical volatility – applicable immediately to strategy, regulation, and organisational design. Biography highlights Professor of History, Department of History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; PhD from the University of Oxford, 2002 Author of Sapiens, Homo Deus, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and NEXUS – published in more than 65 languages; Sapiens held the Sunday Times bestseller top three for 96 consecutive weeks and ranked #10 in the NYT’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century (2024) Distinguished Research Fellow, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge Two-time Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality (2009, 2012); Moncado Award, Society for Military History (2011); Handelsblatt German Economic Book Award for Homo Deus (2017) WEF Davos keynote speaker in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2026; CBS 60 Minutes profile (2021) Regular contributor to the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Economist, New York Times, and Nature Biography Organisations making decisions about AI governance are operating without historical context. The scale of information networks has changed before – with writing, printing, and broadcasting – and power has reorganised around each transition. What makes AI structurally different is not its speed or scale, but the fact that, for the first time, the network itself can generate and act on information without human instruction. Yuval Noah Harari is a Professor of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Distinguished Research Fellow at Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. His four major works – Sapiens, Homo Deus, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and NEXUS – form a sustained argument about the relationship between information, power, and human agency, tracing it from the deep past to the governance decisions of the AI era. NEXUS, published in 2024, made that argument most directly relevant to organisations. Harari’s central distinction – between information systems that are self-correcting and those that reinforce existing power – gives leaders a practical framework for evaluating AI governance, regulatory exposure, and institutional design. The book argues that how organisations and governments navigate this distinction is the defining question of the current period. NEXUS reached number two on both the New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller lists within a week of publication. Harari has held public conversations with heads of state including Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, and Mark Rutte on the future of AI and information. He has delivered keynote addresses at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2026, and contributes regularly to the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Economist, and Nature. His books have been translated into more than 65 languages. Key speaking topics Artificial intelligence and information governance The history and future of information networks Geopolitical risk and global power Long-term civilisational change and strategic foresight Human agency and technological disruption Shared fictions, institutions, and how societies hold together AI regulation and democratic resilience Ideal for Boards and C-suite leadership teams navigating AI governance, information strategy, or long-term geopolitical risk Policy, government affairs, and strategic foresight functions at senior level Global conference and forum audiences at CEO, minister, or board director level Technology strategy and corporate affairs teams working on the societal and regulatory implications of AI Audience outcomes A macro-historical framework for reading which changes are structurally significant vs cyclical – applicable to strategy, governance, and regulatory positioning Practical understanding of the NEXUS distinction between self-correcting and self-reinforcing information systems, and its implications for AI governance design Clearer thinking about where power resides in information networks, and what that means for institutional and organisational decisions Historical context for positioning AI decisions within the longer pattern of how information technologies have redistributed political and economic power Sharper questions to bring back to leadership, board, and regulatory conversations already underway

Why organisations work with Norbert Csizmadia He brings the operating perspective of someone who has sat inside national economic planning, as State Secretary at Hungary’s Ministry for National Economy and Executive Director at the country’s central bank. His Geofusion framework gives leadership teams a map-based vocabulary for connectivity, complexity and long-term sustainability, drawn from a published body of work that includes Geofusion, GeoFuture and GeoVision. He sits inside the institutions that shape Eurasian strategy, including the Fudan Institute of Belt and Road and Global Governance in Shanghai and the Board of Bank of China CEE, which gives clients a perspective on the East that few European speakers can match. He treats geography as a strategic asset, not background context, which is useful for boards trying to make sense of supply chain reconfiguration, energy corridors and shifting trade blocs. In 2025 the World Complexity Science Academy awarded him its Medal for Sustainability for the Geofusion research, a signal that the work is taken seriously beyond bureau circuits. Biography highlights Former State Secretary for Planning Coordination, Hungarian Ministry for National Economy. Former Executive Director, Central Bank of Hungary, responsible for economic strategy and planning. President of the Board of Trustees, John von Neumann University Foundation, and President of the Pallas Athene Domus Meriti Foundation. Author of Geofusion: The Power of Geography and the Mapping of the 21st Century (LID Publishing / World Scientific), published in English and Chinese, followed by GeoFusion 2.0, GeoFuture and GeoVision 2023. Member of the International Advisory Board, Fudan Institute of Belt and Road and Global Governance, Shanghai; Independent Director, Bank of China CEE. 2025 recipient, World Complexity Science Academy Medal for Sustainability. Biography Geography is making a return to the strategy room. Trade corridors, energy routes, semiconductor chokepoints and sanctions maps are once again decisive variables for capital allocation. Norbert Csizmadia’s work, gathered under the Geofusion banner across four published volumes with LID Publishing and World Scientific, treats this return as the central organising fact of twenty-first century strategy. The argument is built from inside the machinery, not from a desk. As State Secretary for Planning Coordination at Hungary’s Ministry for National Economy, and later as Executive Director at the Central Bank of Hungary, he helped design national economic strategy at the level where geopolitics, infrastructure and capital allocation meet. That experience is rare in the geopolitics speaker pool, where commentary often dominates over operating perspective. His institutional footprint runs East as well as West. He sits on the International Advisory Board of the Fudan Institute of Belt and Road and Global Governance in Shanghai, is an Independent Director at Bank of China CEE, and chairs the Boards of Trustees at John von Neumann University Foundation and the Pallas Athene Domus Meriti Foundation. For European audiences, this gives him an unusually direct line of sight into Chinese strategic thinking on Eurasian connectivity. In 2025 the World Complexity Science Academy recognised the Geofusion body of work with its Medal for Sustainability, citing the research’s ability to map the interconnections between places, disciplines and long-term sustainability questions. That recognition matters because his proposition rests on it: that a map-based, cross-disciplinary reading of the world produces sharper strategic decisions than topic-by-topic analysis. Key speaking topics Geoeconomics and global strategy Eurasian connectivity and the Belt and Road Long-term sustainability and complexity The geography of trade, capital and supply chains Hungarian and Central European economic policy The role of maps in twenty-first century strategy Digitalisation and AI in a geopolitical frame Ideal for Boards and executive committees stress-testing geopolitical exposure across Europe and Asia Strategy, corporate development and policy leads in industries exposed to Eurasian trade corridors and energy flows Family offices, sovereign investors and asset allocators with capital deployed across East-West blocs Universities, foundations and policy bodies running long-horizon scenario work on connectivity and sustainability Audience outcomes A map-based reading of how Eurasian connectivity, energy and trade corridors are reshaping commercial and capital decisions A clearer view of how Chinese strategic thinking on Belt and Road frames European exposure A working vocabulary from the Geofusion framework for talking about complexity, connectivity and sustainability inside the same conversation A perspective on long-term sustainability that is grounded in geography and capital allocation rather than ESG narrative Strategic questions a leadership team can take into its own scenario planning

Why organisations work with Josef Joffe Four decades inside the engine room of European opinion-shaping as publisher-editor of Die Zeit and columnist for Suddeutsche Zeitung, giving boards a primary source on how Berlin, Paris and Brussels actually think. A contrarian intellectual record on American power. The Myth of America’s Decline (Liveright, 2013) dismantled the standard declinist consensus and predicted China’s strategic limits years before they became conventional wisdom. Co-founder of The American Interest with Brzezinski, Cohen and Fukuyama, and of its successor American Purpose. He has shaped the most serious post-Cold War conversation on the West’s strategic future. Stanford Hoover and Freeman Spogli affiliations alongside teaching at Harvard, Johns Hopkins SAIS and Stanford. Boards get an academic seriousness uncommon among geopolitical commentators. Bilingual fluency in the German and American political mind. He is one of the few public intellectuals who can address a transatlantic audience without translating awkwardly between the two political cultures. Biography highlights Publisher-editor of Die Zeit, 2000 to 2023, after fifteen years as editorial page editor of Suddeutsche Zeitung. Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and courtesy professor of political science at Stanford; Senior Fellow of Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. PhD in Government from Harvard; MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS; BA from Swarthmore. Author of The Myth of America’s Decline (2013), Uberpower: The Imperial Temptation of America (2007) and The Limited Partnership (1987). Co-founder of The American Interest (2005) and American Purpose (2020), with Brzezinski, Cohen and Fukuyama. Recipient of the Theodor Wolff Prize, the Ludwig Borne Prize and Germany’s Federal Order of Merit. Biography The post-1945 international order is being rewritten in real time. War has returned to Europe, the China-US contest has hardened, and Germany has begun a defence and energy reorientation that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. Reading these shifts is now part of board-level strategic work, not foreign policy commentary. Josef Joffe has been working this territory for forty years. As publisher-editor of Die Zeit from 2000 to 2023, and before that as editorial page editor of Suddeutsche Zeitung, he shaped how the German political class understood its place in the Atlantic alliance. His books, including The Myth of America’s Decline (Liveright, 2013) and Uberpower: The Imperial Temptation of America (W.W. Norton, 2007), argue against the prevailing declinist reading of US power, drawing on demographic, economic and military fundamentals that he was naming well before they became consensus. At Stanford he is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, courtesy professor of political science, and Senior Fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He took his PhD in Government from Harvard and has taught at Harvard, Johns Hopkins SAIS and Stanford. In 2005 he co-founded The American Interest with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Eliot Cohen and Francis Fukuyama; in 2020 the successor publication American Purpose. What Joffe offers leadership teams is rare. A working bilingual command of the German and American political minds, an analytical record that has been right on the durability of American power, and the willingness to make a contrarian argument in front of a room that expects the conventional one. Key speaking topics US foreign policy and the future of American power Transatlantic relations and the Atlantic alliance Germany and the European political order China, Russia and the great-power contest The Middle East and Israel The fracturing post-1945 international order Ideal for Boards and executive committees with material exposure to US-China decoupling, Russia sanctions or European political risk CEOs and strategy leaders of transatlantic firms briefing their leadership on geopolitical scenarios CFOs and treasurers making capital allocation decisions against macro-political volatility Investor and partner forums where senior audiences expect serious foreign-policy analysis rather than commentary Audience outcomes A clearer reading of where US power, the China contest and European politics are actually heading, against the prevailing headlines A frame for distinguishing structural shifts from cyclical noise in transatlantic politics Direct insight into how Berlin, Paris and Brussels are recalibrating after the war in Ukraine A contrarian’s stress test of the assumptions their organisation is currently working from on geopolitics

Why organisations work with Tara Shine Two decades inside the UN climate negotiation system, including EU negotiating roles within the UNFCCC, give her direct authority on the policy environment shaping corporate net zero obligations. Reviewed the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C, the scientific reference point most net zero strategies are still benchmarked against. Runs Change by Degrees, a B Corp certified Irish social enterprise, so her advice is grounded in the operating reality of building a sustainable business, not only in policy theory. Communicates climate substance to non-specialist audiences without softening it. The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures and BBC One presenter work demonstrate the rare ability to hold scientific authority and audience accessibility in the same conversation. Adviser to the Mary Robinson Foundation and The Elders, giving her a track record at the level where climate strategy meets serious geopolitical and ethical scrutiny. Biography highlights Co-founder and Director, Change by Degrees (B Corp certified social enterprise) Chair of Trustees, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2014 to 2025 Former Special Advisor, Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice; adviser to The Elders UN climate change negotiator for over a decade, including for the EU under the UNFCCC Co-facilitator, Structured Expert Dialogue of the Second Periodic Review under the UNFCCC Reviewer, IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C Presenter, Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2020 (Lecture Three: Up in the Air); BBC One contributor Author, “How to Save Your Planet One Object at a Time” (Simon and Schuster, 2020) Biography The Paris Agreement was negotiated in rooms most business audiences never see. Tara Shine spent a decade in those rooms, including in EU negotiating positions, and later co-facilitated the Structured Expert Dialogue assessing whether the Agreement’s goals were actually being met. That history matters now, because the policy assumptions corporates built their net zero plans on are being tested in real time. She is co-founder and director of Change by Degrees, a B Corp certified Irish social enterprise that advises organisations on the operating side of sustainability. Her work as a reviewer of the IPCC Special Report on 1.5C gave her standing in the scientific community; her role as Special Advisor to the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice gave her standing in the political one. Few speakers carry both at once. Public audiences know her from the 2020 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, where she delivered Lecture Three on air pollution and climate, and from BBC One presenting work on heat pumps and electric vehicles. Her 2020 book “How to Save Your Planet One Object at a Time” (Simon and Schuster) translated climate science into household decisions, and was reviewed by The Times as “an unpreachy guide free of jargon and full of often surprising information.” She chaired the Board of Trustees of the International Institute for Environment and Development from 2014 to 2025, a tenure that placed her at the intersection of climate, equity, and development finance for over a decade. That vantage point gives her something most sustainability speakers do not have: a direct view of how climate policy is made, contested, and translated into the rules companies have to operate inside. Key speaking topics Climate policy and the UN negotiation system Corporate net zero and the credibility of climate commitments Energy transition and the gap between policy and capital allocation ESG under scrutiny Climate justice and the geopolitics of climate action Sustainability strategy for B Corps and purpose-led businesses Science communication for non-specialist audiences Ideal for Boards and executive committees setting or revising net zero strategy Chief sustainability officers and ESG leads briefing investors and regulators Corporate communications and investor relations teams under scrutiny on climate claims Sustainability and transformation leads inside energy, finance, manufacturing, and consumer sectors Audience outcomes A clearer read on where global climate policy is heading and what it requires of corporates A sharper distinction between climate commitments that will hold up under scrutiny and those that will not Practical reference points from a B Corp operator, not only a policy adviser A scientific grounding for boardroom climate conversations, free of jargon Confidence to engage seriously with stakeholders on climate without retreating into PR language